What Vocational Rehabilitation Services Must Workers’ Comp Provide?

If you initiate a workers’ compensation claim and you return to work, your employer is required to make reasonable accommodations for you to do your job — but what if you cannot do your job, even with such accommodations? If that is the case, you are entitled to vocational rehabilitation benefits to help prepare you for a new job. A capable Illinois workers’ comp lawyer can help ensure that you receive the full range of benefits to which you are entitled.

Vocational Rehabilitation With Illinois Workers’ Comp Benefits

Vocational rehabilitation benefits can take a variety of forms, including:

Assistance finding a new job

One-the-job training

Counseling

Educational assistance

Ideally, injured workers can take advantage of vocational rehabilitation services to acquire a new job with a similar standard of living, whether in their previous industry or an entirely different one. Unfortunately, this is not always the case.

What If My New Job Doesn’t Pay as Much?

The idea behind vocational rehabilitation benefits is to maintain your standard of living while you return to the workforce in a different capacity, but many injured workers may find themselves earning less in their new position. Fortunately, Illinois workers’ comp benefits account for this with wage differential benefits. Wage differential benefits exist to offset the difference between what you were able to earn before getting injured at work and what you are able to earn in your new occupation.

Unfortunately, wage differential benefits are capped and are not payable indefinitely. You may be eligible to receive two-thirds of the difference between your previous wage and your new wage, and benefits are payable to age 67 or five years after wage benefits are awarded, whichever is later.

Our firm has extensive experience in forcing an insurance company to provide vocational rehabilitation services and obtain significant settlements for clients that suffer permanent wage losses. Look at some of our workers’ compensation settlements and verdicts.

Rubens Kress and Mulholland is a Chicago law firm concentrating in workers’ compensation cases, and there is no fee unless you collect. If you have been hurt at work, you should not hesitate to schedule a free consultation with an experienced Illinois workers’ comp lawyer. You can contact Rubens Kress and Mulholland online, at 312-201-9640, or toll-free at 866-890-9640.